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11 Ways You Can Make a Difference Today

11 Ways You Can Make a Difference Today

Health is one of the few truly universal issues – everyone must take care of body and mind to live long and happily. However, some people are less fortunate than others when it comes to health care access and affordability. Luckily, organizations such as AmeriCares have made it their goal to ensure that everyone has sufficient access to medical care and that everyone has an equal opportunity to stay healthy. Everyday Health For All is teaming up with AmeriCares to raise money for 11 important health causes. Read on to find out how you can get involved!

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Emergency Aid for Missouri

The city of Joplin, Mo., is still in desperate need of emergency aid after a tornado blasted through the area on May 22. The tornado damaged thousands of homes and buildings, including Joplin’s High School and St. John's Regional Medical Center. It is now on record as the deadliest U.S. tornado since 1953. AmeriCares has teamed up with a number of local clinics, homeless shelters, and health care providers to help victims affected by the tornado.

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Critical Heart Disease in Paraguay

One of the poorest countries in Latin America, Paraguay is suffering a health crisis. More than half of the people there struggle for basic needs such as food and shelter and don’t have access to health care. The public health care system is severely underfunded, and medical resources are scarce. Many of the people in more rural parts of Paraguay have undrinkable water and lack sewage systems. Some of the leading causes of death are heart disease and high blood pressure, chronic illnesses that are often left untreated. Hospital del Corazon in Paraguay was founded to treat cardiac patients.

Protect America's Nurses

Nurses provide critical medical care to patients across the country and all around the world. However, their job also comes with some risk. Through their work, nurses often come into close contact with their patients, some of whom have serious infections. This makes them highly susceptible to infection from needle sticks and exposure to virulent bacteria or contaminated blood. AmeriCares is helping to protect these nurses by sending hygiene and infection control supplies to health care clinics around the country.

Malnutrition in Malawi

Early childhood malnutrition stunts the growth of more than half of children under age 5 in Malawi, one of the least developed countries in the world. Although the government has made a commitment to improving the country’s health, life expectancy is still only 46 years for Malawians. AmeriCares has built a care center in the country that admits malnourished children, nurses them to a normal weight, and sends them home with two weeks of food. The center also teaches mothers how to cook nutritionally balanced meals and grow their own vegetables at home.

Keep Americans Breathing

Many people in America are out of work, and in a lot of cases that means that they are also out of health insurance. For instance, Rodger Ash of West Virginia works various landscaping and carpentry odd jobs but still does not make enough to support himself and his niece. Ash has bronchitis, asthma, and pneumonia but does not have access to insurance or health care. Ash — and many Americans like him — can only see a doctor by going to a free clinic that AmeriCares supports. AmeriCares supplies these clinics with medical supplies so that they can treat patients like Rodger.

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Save Newborns in Ghana

Nearly half of all infant deaths in Ghana occur during delivery or the first 24 hours after birth, and are often the result of breathing problems. Yaa Pokuaa, for example, gave birth to a baby girl who had serious breathing difficulties but is healthy now because she was born at Suntreso Hospital in Kumasim, where birthing attendants provided critical care and saved her life. The hospital is part of a pilot program in Ghana, through which midwives and other health care providers are trained in how to stimulate breathing during the moments following birth. AmeriCares helped launch and continues to support the program. The program serves 3,500 mothers and babies in Ghana.

Help Americans Fight Heart Disease

The Philadelphia suburb of Sundbury, like many other American communities, is struggling in this economic climate. Local businesses have shut down, leaving people unemployed and without health insurance. Free clinics such A Community Clinic help treat these uninsured residents, many of whom suffer from serious heart conditions such as heart disease and high blood pressure. Health care providers at the clinic administer quality care and heart health medications to more than 200 people each month. AmeriCares is supporting clinics like the one in Sundbury by raising money to send six months of medications to infirmaries all across the country.

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Help Children in the Dominican Republic

Each week there are more than 5,000 acute respiratory infections in the Dominican Republic, and tens of thousands of people suffer from chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma. Children are especially susceptible to these conditions, and some could die if they don't receive adequate treatment. Clinics like Dispensario Sierva de Maria, located in the capital city, offer care to poor and underprivileged communities and are in desperate need of supplies. AmeriCares has been donating medicines to help the clinic treat respiratory infections and chronic lung conditions, and it is time to send another shipment!

David Turnley/Corbis

Fight Chronic Disease in Armenia

Nvard Avetissyan is a woman from Yerevan, Armenia, who has type 2 diabetes. She didn’t always have access to diabetes medications or regular care, and the disease was continuously putting her life at risk. Nvard's life is no longer dominated by her diabetes as a result of an AmeriCares partnership with the Kanaker-Zeytun Medical Center. AmeriCares sends donated diabetes medications for the medical center's 1,500 patients. The AmeriCares partnership "saves patient lives," says Dr. Gagik Stamboltsyan, director of the medical center and former Armenian Minister of Health.

Urgent Care for Uninsured Diabetics

Thousands of chronically ill patients in America must rely on free clinics to provide treatment for their diabetes. The West Town CommunityHealth Clinic in Chicago is the largest health clinic in the state, serving 8,000 people a year, including 1,000 with diabetes. AmeriCares is one of the organizations helping to fund the clinic. Help treat uninsured diabetics by providing the clinic and others like it with vital medical supplies.

Keep Hearts Beating in America

Electrocardiogram screenings can identify and monitor life-threatening heart problems so that patients get the necessary care to keep their hearts beating. In some cases, an EKG screening can save someone's life.Genie Chargois sees situations like this frequently at the Manna Ministries clinic in Picayune, Miss., where she works as a nurse care manager. Her own sister was diagnosed with aortic stenosis through an EKG and was sent to the emergency surgery that saved her life. Many of her patients suffer from heart complications, but the clinic doesn't have enough money for an EKG to do screenings, so they could be missing out on critical care.

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